Note: You can see the entire preseason USA Today Coaches Poll below this post.
Here's my first thought about the preseason poll: Florida will not win the national title. Maybe they'll make the title game and lose. Maybe they won't make the title game. There are a lot of maybes, but I don't think the Gators will be holding the crystal ball at the end of the season. However, I do think they're a good choice for preseason #1.
Texas is a great choice for the second-place team because they showed a lot of talent last season, winning 11 regular season games and the Fiesta Bowl. The Fiesta Bowl was a 24-21 defeat of another great team, Ohio State. Texas is actually going to get my pick to win this year's national title. (just in case that doesn't happen, USC is my second pick)
I would place Oklahoma below USC because the Trojans went out on a very high note at the end of last year, beating Big Ten champ Penn State 38-24 in the Rose Bowl. The Sooners, however, did not win their bowl game, as Florida downed them 24-14 in the title game. I believe that the Sooners were way overrated last year, and I still think USC should have played Texas/Florida in the title game. Oklahoma was definitely a terrible pick for this game.
And now we turn to the worst ranking in the entire poll: Alabama. Apparently, none of the voters remember what happened to Alabama in the Sugar Bowl: Utah not only beat them, but dominated them, winning 31-17. And Utah is a mid-major team. Alabama was overrated last year anyway, and never should have been ranked as high as they were. They are definitely overrated in this year's preseason poll.
The rankings in the SEC West are definitely interesting. It goes like this: Alabama, LSU, Ole Miss. I've already stated that the Tide is overrated, so let's look at LSU and Ole Miss. Last year, Ole Miss dominated LSU 31-13 in Baton Rouge. Ole Miss is my pick to win the SEC West this year, and I believe they end up with a way higher ranking at the end of the season.
The Georgia-Oklahoma State positions are also interesting. The Cowboys are #11 and the Dawgs are #13. This will make a good matchup for the opening week of the 2009 season. We all know that the game is in Stillwater, so Oklahoma State will probably have the advantage. However, I believe Georgia will surprise a lot of people this year and may be better than many people think. This may include a win over Oklahoma State.
So that wraps up my thoughts on the preseason USA Today Coaches Poll. More of this will come once the preseason AP Poll comes out (mostly a comparison to the Coaches Poll). Until then, come up with your own thoughts on this poll!
